


Dog Days

by VirginiasWolf



Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: Dog Richard Poole, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: After being cursed by a vengeful witch Richard finds himself forced to confront one of two things, either he learns to love the island and it's people and let it/them love him in return, or he spends the rest of his life trapped in the body of a very large dog.
Relationships: Camille Bordey/Richard Poole
Comments: 33
Kudos: 19





	1. The Shack

**Author's Note:**

> I've got a general plot in mind (including how I want to end this story), but feel free to comment with suggestions of what hijinks Richard might accidentally get himself into with the help of his team and Catherine.

Camille decides to arrive a little early to pick Richard up for work and to also bring one of his favorite pastries with her. As much as he'd put on the bluster of thinking everything the old woman had said the previous night was a complete falsehood, she could tell he had been a little shaken by the declaration. "You will slobber and beg at the feet of those who respect you the most. It is only when you learn to let people love you for who you really are, and to love them in return that your curse will be lifted." 

  
With those words, the woman had managed to hit every single one of Richard's insecurities and Camille has half a mind to give a piece of her mind over that when they get to the station. Her first order of business will be making sure the good inspector doesn't wake up grumpy though.

  
"Richard, I bought you breakfast." Camille pauses in the doorway to the shack before peering into the bedroom. For a second she thinks her eyes are deceiving her. There is a figure under the covers, but it certainly doesn't look like her boss. Where Richard Poole would normally be is lying a very large, sleeping dog. Camille quickly recognizes the breed as some sort of large Mastiff or perhaps a Cane Corso, which is a breed that an infamous, now deceased, drug kingpin of Saint Marie had loved to parade through the streets.

  
"Mon dieu." Camille realizes with a sudden chill that the beast must have eaten Richard, but it doesn't explain why there isn't a trail of blood or why the animal is tucked under the covers much like the big bad wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood tale.

  
Not wanting to waken the beast, Camille carefully places what would have been Richard's breakfast on the dresser before entering the room. She owes it to him to find whatever is left of a body and make sure he gets a proper burial or cremation, even if seeing him like that absolutely breaks her heart. After a shocked moment, she realizes there are no signs of a struggle or a blood trail. Either that dog is something far more intelligent which can cover its tracks or Richard is somehow completely unscathed even with a large vicious looking dog asleep in his bed.

  
That's when Camille receives the second shock of the morning. "What exactly do you think you're doing sneaking around my house like that while I am asleep Sergeant Bordey?"

  
Instinctively Camille looks towards where Richard's voice is coming from, the bed. The dog is now awake and staring straight at her, and its mouth is moving as if this beast is speaking Richard's words. For the first time, she notices something else. The dog's eyes are the exact same shade of green as Richard's. There's only one way Camille can think to react to this strange revelation, and that is to let out a distinctly not officer of the law like scream and race out of the shack.

  
Camille only stops running as the tips of her shoes touch the sea and at that moment something clicks inside her brain. That thing didn't eat Richard because it is Richard. "None of this makes sense. Men don't just turn into dogs." Suddenly she realizes something else. "My God, does he even know what he's become? I have to march right back into that shack and tell him."

  
Camille sucks in a deep breath and turns around to find that Richard has trotted out of the shack and is staring at her. If she'd had her doubts before that the dog was really him, they are completely destroyed by the shreds of pajama that cling to the canine frame. He isn't speaking, and she wonders if she shocked him so much with her screams that he hasn't even bothered to notice that he is now walking on four legs and the colors of his vision have become severely limited.

  
Just in case he genuinely hasn't realized what he is, she decides to try her best not to freak him out. "Sir, how do you feel this morning?"

  
"Quite abnormal actually." After a brief second, he pauses speaking and looks down at his paws. "Camille, I don't know how to ask this, but do I look strange to you?"

  
How is she supposed to explain to him what happened while he was asleep? He is without a doubt a man of science and rational thinking and this is not that. "You might want to sit down for this."

  
-  
Richard paces back and forth on the floor of the shack, his paws making heavy thudding sounds with each movement. It is these sounds that are slowly driving Camille insane. "Sit!"

  
Richard pauses shocked for a second and then obeys her command far too quickly. His English politeness must even be seeping into wanting to be the best-behaved canine possible. However, as he sits on the floor he starts to go into one of his typically Richard rants. "I can't possibly go to work like this. A British policeman is supposed to inspire poise and respect not drool all over your shoes, and how exactly can I expect criminals to be intimidated by my presence when I'm not even wearing pants?"

  
Camille barely manages to keep from pointing out that he looks far more intimidating now than he ever did as a human. No need to deliver a blow to his self-confidence when he is in this state. "You are a very large and very intimidating breed of dog. I don't believe fear will be a problem. We need to get you to the station though."

  
Richard suddenly whimpers. "I can't go out in public looking like this."

  
"Well, I can't very well explain all of this to Fidel over the phone. 'No Fidel I haven't been hitting my mother's rum. I swear the chief is sitting right next to me licking his balls.' There might be a bit of a believability problem there."

  
Camille looks up just in time to see Richard glaring at her, a look that is immediately recognizable even in dog form. "I wouldn't be caught dead licking my own testicles."


	2. The Station

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I intended to update this sooner, but the current crisis has put me in a kind of writing slump (which has been doubly worse for my original novel...who would guess that horror, my original writing genre, is hard to write when the world is crumbling around you *sarcasm*)
> 
> I know it was suggested that it would be hilarious to see Richard accidentally giving in to dog urges, but I realized it might be even funnier if he was still trying desperately to do all of his typical Richard activities in a dog body.

Fidel can already hear Camille and the chief arguing from across the plaza. So much for having quiet time to finish filling out these reports.

  
"What do you think he did to piss her off this time?" Dwayne asks peering around his desk at the younger officer.

  
Fidel is about to retort that perhaps it was Camille who did something to upset their boss when suddenly the voices become close enough to make out exactly what is being said.

  
"Oh, why don't you just go hike your leg on a palm tree?!"

  
"That is extremely immature Camille, even for a French woman. I suppose next you're going to tell me to chew up my own shoes."

  
"Perhaps that would give you some perspective! Your kind do it all the time anyway!"

  
The two officers already in the station exchange a wide-eyed, confused look. "They've both gone completely bonkers," Dwayne mutters as the arguing outside only manages to turn even more colorful and strangely dog-themed.

  
It all comes to a head when footsteps begin to sound up the walkway, one set completely normal and the other almost sounding more animal than human. "Stay!" Camille instructs which is met with an outrageous uproar from the chief.

  
"Stop treating me like some sort of bloody mutt! As far as I can tell, I'm a purebred!"

  
"What do we do with them?" Fidel tries to mouth to Dwayne, although he isn't sure if his message has been properly read.

  
Seconds later Camille walks into the station wearing the expression of someone who is definitely trying to hide something. "Is the old woman we arrested last night still in the cells?"

  
"She should be, but I haven't checked on her yet." Fidel hates to admit that the old woman had been so quiet that he had completely forgotten they were holding a prisoner in the cells.

  
"Good. Good. Perhaps you could go check now, Fidel?" Even as he speaks, the chief remains out on the veranda.

  
Fidel tries to peer outside, but the angle at which Camille is standing blocks his view. However, he thinks he can make out a shape that is distinctly not human. "Sir, aren't you going to come inside the station?"

  
"It's a nice sunny day. I'd like to breathe in the fresh air."

  
"You're going to have to come inside eventually. I can't hide you from them forever." Camille turns to address the chief and Fidel and Dwayne exchange another look of confusion.

  
"Sir, is something wrong?" Fidel asks.

  
After a moment Camille steps aside and allows a figure to trot into the station. Not a man, but a very large dog.

  
"Well, aren't you going to check on the old crone?" the dog's lips are moving with the voice of the chief coming out of the aggressively fanged mouth.

  
"I don't believe it." Dwayne walks a circle around the chief looking at him from every angle causing the now dog to look nervous and tuck his tail between his legs which gives Fidel a pang of sympathy.

  
"I'll go check the cells right now." It only takes peering into the cell area for the young officer to realizer there is something seriously wrong. The cell door is locked, but there is absolutely no old woman inside of it. He almost hates having to deliver this news, but he has no choice so he turns back to the rest of the room. "She's gone."

  
"What do you bloody mean by that?" the chief trots over with a solemn frown gracing his features. Seconds later he also peers through the beaded curtain and lets out a frustrated noise that almost sounds like a howl. "This can't be happening to me."

  
Unsure of what to do, Fidel instinctively reaches down and pats him on top of the head. "There, there Chief, I'm sure we can figure something out."

  
-  
The rest of the morning passes strangely. Thankfully there are no new cases, but there are several obstacles presented. Of course, Richard has no grounds for how to behave in this body, but Camille also can't help but feel that he isn't trying as hard as he should be. 

  
If some poor tourist were to walk into the station there would likely be nothing more terrifying than a very large dog trying to stamp reports and occasionally lift himself into a two-legged standing position only to immediately loudly crash back down to four. That isn't including how upset he's become about being banned from having tea or chocolate.

  
By the time Camille heads to La Kaz to try to retrieve lunch for everybody she is half tempted to just not bring anything back for Richard at all. It doesn't take long for affection to win out over annoyance though.

  
Camille has her back to the doorway and is rummaging in the freezer when her mother walks in. "Camille, what are you doing in my freezer?"

  
When she turns around Catherine is holding a small, brown paper-wrapped package, no doubt Richard's usual banana sandwich. "I'm not doing anything in the freezer, Maman." Camille knows she sounds exactly like a small child who is definitely hiding something and her mother isn't buying the excuse in the least.

  
This is only further confirmed by Catherine stepping forward. "What are you hiding behind your back?"

  
Camille relents quickly, perhaps out of fear, and shows the raw goat leg that she had planned to sneak out and give to Richard for lunch.

  
"Why are you holding that Camille?"

  
"It's Richard's lunch."

  
"No, this is his lunch." Catherine holds out the wrapped package.

  
Camille is half tempted to take the goat leg and just run back towards the station, but she suddenly realizes that her mother could actually be helpful in this situation. It isn't if Google has any search results on what to do if you are turned into a dog. "Maman, can you please come with me back to the station. I can't explain any of this without sounding like I have completely lost my mind."

  
Catherine leaves her head waitress in charge and chooses to follow, perhaps out of concern that she will soon have to call an ambulance for her daughter.

  
When they arrive back at the station, Dwayne is standing on the balcony. "Hello Catherine, what brings you to the station today?"

  
"I am trying to understand why I caught my daughter attempting to sneak a raw goat leg out of La Kaz."

  
Dwayne looks at Camille for a moment as if to ask if she is really okay with telling her mother about the situation, or perhaps if she was really about to feed the chief raw goat. "The chief ain't gonna be happy with someone else findin' out about his 'condition'. No offense Catherine."

  
Now Catherine looks between Dwayne and her daughter. "Is he ill?"

  
Camille fidgets nervously. "Not exactly Maman. He's..."

  
Before Camille can finish a loud crash sounds from inside the station followed by Fidel's voice. "Let me get that off the shelf for you, Chief."

  
"It's these bloody paws," Richard responds sullenly, clearly not aware that he's being listened to by someone outside of his team.

  
"What kind of ridiculous prank are you playing on me?!" Catherine turns to glare at her daughter before storming into the station.

  
Richard and Fidel turn in almost unison to look at her. Never one to beat around the bush, Richard immediately speaks, "Hello, Catherine."

  
Instead of freaking out, like her daughter had earlier, Catherine simply states, "Camille is right. I would not have believed this without proof. Who did you irritate this time, Richard?"

  
"What makes you think I bloody irritated someone? Perhaps they were just mean, it is rather mean spirited to turn a man into a dog isn't it?"

  
Camille is almost prepared to laugh at the comment until she steps into the station and peers over her mother's shoulder and sees exactly how sullen Richard looks. "We're not sure exactly what happened, but he did wake up like this."

  
Before another comment can be made Dwayne peeks around the doorway. "We've got trouble. Commissioner is approaching the station fast, and he doesn't strike me as one to believe in voodoo. Not to mention there is that law about dogs needin' to be on leashes and the chief isn't even wearing a collar."

  
"Well I'm sure once I talk to him he'll see some logic," Richard begins to walk towards the open door only to be blocked by the two Bordey women.

  
At almost the same moment, Patterson reaches the steps of the station. "Officer Myers, do you have a dog inside the station?"

  
Something seems strange about how the Commissioner is unable to hear Richard's voice, but Camille doesn't take time to think about this. Instead she turns to Richard and hisses, "Sir, hide behind your desk."

  
Richard is prepared to retort in frustration before being met by glares from both Camille and her mother. Instead, he sulks over to the desk with his tail tucked between his legs. "This is ridiculous."

  
Just as Richard has tucked himself behind his desk, the Commissioner steps into the station. "Madame Bordey, visiting your daughter I suppose? Is the inspector in?"

  
"No sir, he'd called earlier to say that he feels sick as a dog today." Fidel immediately covers his mouth after the unintentional wordplay and Camille and Catherine both try not to laugh.

  
Instead, Camille decides to add, "He has left me temporarily in charge."

  
Apparently the insinuation that Camille is in charge is too much for Richard to handle as he immediately growls, "I bloody did not."

  
"There is a dog in here." The commissioner tries to walk around behind the desk, but Camille and Catherine instinctively move to block his path.

  
"Dwayne, weren't you just telling Camille about how your new ringtone is the sound of barking dogs?" Catherine suddenly asks.

  
"An interesting choice Officer Myers." The commissioner raises an eyebrow in surprise but abandons his attempts to peer around the desk, which surely would have led to Richard's discovery. "Please tell the inspector that I would like to talk to him when he is well again."

  
This time even Richard doesn't bother to grumble.


	3. Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to hoping the last two chapters won't take this long to put together, although if they do you might be able to blame one of our stars for killing me. I just tried to interact with Sara on Instagram and I may die if she actually responds to me.

"I can't believe he insisted on sleeping alone at the station." Camille mutters. The station is now closed for the day, and she is trying to enjoy a drink at her mother's bar with Dwayne, but her mind keeps wandering back to Richard. Even in the body of a dog, the ridiculous Englishman is so swollen up with pride that he can't possibly admit that he needs help. Instead, he has chosen to isolate himself again under the guise that the station needs a guard dog.

  
"Chief's a stubborn old goat, but what are you gonna do about it?" Dwayne sips at his beer as he speaks.

  
It is at that moment that Camille decides that she knows exactly what she will do. "I'm going to go back to the station to spend the night with him."

  
After bidding Dwayne farewell, Camille heads upstairs to collect a couple blankets and a pillow from the apartment. 

  
Making her way through the darkened streets of Honore, she can't help but reflect on how upset Richard will probably be with her. Camille tries to tell herself that she isn't even doing this for him, she's doing it so they don't have the headache of having to retrieve the inspector from the animal shelter, or worse yet have to train an entirely new inspector if he gets killed by somebody breaking into the station. Deep down she knows that isn't actually true.

  
"You're in a body that isn't yours on an island that is still very strange to you. You must be terrified," Camille states as she finally reaches the bottom of the steps to the station. When she finally begins to unlock the door she expects Richard to burst into an angry uproar about being interrupted. Instead, she finds him asleep in the middle of the floor, apparently too prideful to even use one of the cell beds.

  
Camille lets out a small huff and shakes her head as she places the pile of blankets and the pillow next to her desk chair. Just as Camille is about to sit down, she hears a loud moaning noise. The moment she turns her head she realizes that Richard must be having a nightmare. There's something about the tension in his body that causes an immediate feeling of sympathy to develop. He shouldn't have to feel like this.

  
Sighing, Camille sits down on the floor next to the sleeping dog. Slowly she manages to put Richard's head on her lap without waking him. Of course he'll probably be irritated when he wakes up like this, but for now the touch does seem to calm him. Camille is about to give in and fall into her own sleep in this awkward position when suddenly she hears a noise nearby. It only takes a second to remember that she didn't even bring her service revolver back to the station with her. "Merde!" Camille is about to attempt to rise from her sitting position when the assumed intruder speaks.

  
"Camille?"

  
"Fidel? Aren't you supposed to be at home?" Camille is surprised to see the younger officer when she looks up.

  
"I told Juliette the chief wanted us to work overtime on a case." Fidel makes his way over to his desk as he speaks, careful to keep a tone quiet enough that he won't wake Richard.

  
"You don't have to do this," Camille starts to say. Fidel should be at home with his wife and his baby girl. Richard is probably going to be upset enough to wake up to her at the station.

  
"I'd never be able to sleep just thinking about him like this. Why are you here?"

  
"The same reason," Camille can't help but respond. For a while Fidel sits at his desk and types quietly at a report and Camille continues to hold Richard's head on her lap until tiredness again begins to wear her down. 

  
This time she decides to carefully extract Richard's head from her lap and just make herself a bed next to the sleeping dog, even going as far as to throw one of her blankets over the top of him so he doesn't grow cold. As she looks up before settling into her own position of semi-comfort, she can almost swear that Fidel looks amused.

  
Camille isn't sure how long she sleeps for, but suddenly she feels Fidel shaking her awake. "There's someone outside on the steps."

  
Groggily Camille sits up trying not to jar Richard. No use waking him when it will already be two against one. "I don't have my service revolver," she manages to hiss.

  
Before her and Fidel can think what to do next, Camille becomes aware that the presumed intruder is muttering something. "Chief better be grateful that I'm pickin' him and Camille over the girls at the bar."

  
Camille and Fidel exchange a look of surprise before Fidel states, "I better let him in before he wakes the Chief up."

  
Once Dwayne is inside the station and the three officers have gotten over the shock and amusement of what has happened, Camille decides to make a fresh pot of coffee as Dwayne pulls a deck of cards out of his desk. The game is set up on an area of the floor that is far enough away from Richard that noise won't immediately wake him, but close enough that he is still in all of their lines of sight. The fact that he is the reason they have all been drawn back to the station makes positioning otherwise feel all wrong.

  
Shortly after Dwayne has managed to win yet another round of cards, Camille suddenly becomes aware that someone is yet again walking up the station steps. There's something different about this potential intruder though. The footsteps sound like they belong to a woman whom Camille suspects is wearing sandals.

  
Wanting to follow her hunch, Camille holds up a finger to silence Dwayne and Fidel while hoping that they will still come to her aid if she is wrong. Instead, when she unlatches the door and peers out into the night she is proven exactly right. "Maman?"

  
Her mother pauses only for a second to state, "I assumed I would find you here."

  
Camille nods before adding, "Dwayne and Fidel are here too."

  
"And how is our inspector reacting to drawing such a crowd?"

  
"He doesn't know yet." For the first time Camille takes note of what her mother is carrying. Not just extra blankets, which she assumes are probably meant for her, but also some sort of meat scraps, obviously meant for Richard. "You don't have to stay," she offers lamely.

  
"Cherie, I believe this is one mystery in which I may be the closest thing to an expert you have."

  
For some reason it had never occurred to Camille that they might spend the rest of the night trying to solve the mystery of Richard's condition. In her mind this had all been a way to protect him until he figured it all out, but now she realizes that easing this along is probably one of the best things they can do for Richard. 

  
As soon as her mother is inside the station, Camille walks over to the whiteboard and begins to wipe it off before turning back to the room with a voice that she hopes is somehow both quiet enough to let Richard continue to slumber and convincing enough that her authority won't be questioned. "What do we know about this case?"

  
Dwayne and Fidel exchange amused looks that almost frustrate Camille until Dwayne states, "You said he was already like this when you went to pick him up yesterday mornin'."

  
Carefully Camille jots down 'changed in sleep' as the first point. After a moment of thinking she adds 'cursed by suspect?'.

  
"He still talks like himself," Fidel adds.

  
"Except for the Commissioner who very clearly heard the sound of a barking dog." 

  
That points comes from her mother, and Camille finds herself sheepishly forced to add, "And the people in the marketplace. I definitely got more than a few stares for arguing with a dog."

  
"Why do you think we're able to hear him, but others aren't?" Dwayne asks.

  
As Camille walks over to the coffee pot to refill her cup, she can't help but stop and adjust the blanket that Richard has managed to partially throw off himself before gently patting the top of his head. How wonderful would it be if he would allow her to care for him like this while awake, and in human form? Sadly the man is too stubborn and insecure to let in even those who love him. Of course she loves him despite all her attempts to claim otherwise. In fact, she now has no doubt that she is genuinely in love with him.

  
She doesn't believe the others in the room feel for him in quite the same way that she does, but they clearly care about him in some form, otherwise none of them would be here. As she steps away from the slumbering form she is struck with an idea. "Fidel, who is Richard to you?"

  
"He's the Chief," Fidel looks at her confused for a moment.

  
"Let me rephrase. What kind of personal feelings do you have towards him?"

  
"I guess I see him kind of like a big brother or an uncle."

  
"Maman?"

  
"Almost like a son. A very annoying and stubborn one though."

  
Before Camille can ask, Dwayne states, "I guess he's kinda like a brother to me."

  
Now confident in her conclusion, Camille speaks. "I think we can hear him because we're the ones who truly love him. Part of the curse said that he had to learn to be loved for who he truly is. I think it's our love that is meant to help him break it."


	4. Another Night

Richard had thought that the shame he received at Croydon must surely be the worst punishment he could ever receive, but now he realizes that he couldn't have been more wrong. At least he had looked human even if he was never treated like one.

  
Of course, just as he's started to believe that this new home of his might no longer be so strange and he might actually be growing to love the people he encounters, especially a certain detective sergeant, he is forced to accept that here he is seen as just as much of an oddity as he was in London.

  
The first thing he'd been confronted with upon waking up was that they'd all gathered to gawk at him as he slept. Even Catherine Bordey, whom he'd assumed might be slightly more mature than her daughter, had apparently been unable to resist the chance to gaze upon the spectacle of man turned into beast. 

  
The day had only devolved into something even worse. Between the shared smirks of his team and patronizing head pats and feedings he's become half convinced that they all actually like him better as a dog than as a man.

  
By the end up the day, distress managed to wear Richard down so much that he barely even bothered to protest when Camille insisted he come back to the apartment she shared with her mother. If she was going to stare at him, he might as well give her easy access anyway.

  
He's just managed to find a semi-comfortable sleeping position on the cool tile of the entry hall when suddenly a voice startles him.

  
"What do you think you're doing?" Camille has managed to sneak up on him after coming out of the bathroom.

  
"I'm trying to sleep," he can't help but snap at her.

  
"Not on the tile floor I'd hope."

  
"It happens to be quite cool."

  
"And hard. C'mon there should be enough space on my bed for you." Camille starts to walk towards her bedroom door as she speaks, pausing in the doorway to turn and look at him again.

  
The way she is staring at him makes Richard snap at her again. "You know, I may have the body of a dog, but I've still got the brain of a man. It isn't going to disappear no matter how much you try to pretend I'm just some generic mutt you can feed table scraps to."

  
"Is that how you see things?" Camille asks, and Richard can't help but feel patronized.

  
"I'm not a bloody idiot Camille. I know that even your mother couldn't resist gawking at me."

  
"Richard, none of us went back to the station to gawk at you." Camille's voice takes on a softness that is surprising, and even more surprising is how she sits down on the floor in the entryway to her bedroom almost as if she wants to be at his eye level. "We each came back because we care about you. Fidel sees you as a mentor, Dwayne sees you as a brother, to Maman you're like a son, and to me you're..." Camille pauses for a moment as if unsure of what to say before stating, "To me you're very special. None of us liked the idea of you waking up alone in the station, especially not in a strange body."

  
"Oh," is all Richard can manage to say. 

  
Has he really been so stubborn that he has failed to recognize what it feels like to be genuinely, selflessly cared for? Then again, he isn't entirely sure it is something he has experienced before. Sure he believes his parents care about him and that he was a wanted child, but they also were so determined to have a perfect son that they never bothered to question if boarding school was ever what he wanted or needed. Now, the cruel irony is that he apparently has multiple people, including a very beautiful woman, who truly care about him and he's apparently forever trapped in the body that isn't even human.

  
Camille stands up and looks at him with an expression that he now recognizes as tenderness. "Come to bed Richard. Maybe when you wake up in the morning you will be human again."

  
Sleep does not come easy, at least not for Richard. Camille falls asleep easily, with her face inches from his as if to show that even when he is a large dog, she is not afraid of him. 

  
Richard attributes his nerves to reflecting on exactly what will happen between them once he is human again, or perhaps the way his now heightened senses are in tune to the noise in the bar below. It is no small mercy when Catherine finally shuts down La Kaz and makes her way upstairs to the apartment. Richard finds his lids about to go heavy when suddenly a new noise appears downstairs.

  
Suddenly on alert, Richard finds himself nudging Camille to wake her up as well.

  
"Go back to sleep," a hand reaches out from under the covers to swat at his nose, while its owner remains with eyes closed.

  
Richard remains undeterred. In the most dog like gesture he can think of, he reaches forward and shoves his snout fully into Camille's face causing her to huff and wriggle although her eyes do fly open.

  
"What?"

  
"There's somebody downstairs."

  
"Yes, that would be Maman."

  
Richard presses forward, "Your mother is asleep in the other room."

  
"Then it is a bird or some other small animal." Camille tries to roll over to go back to sleep.

  
Richard surprises himself with his next comment. "Well, whatever it is, I would like to check it out."

  
~  
Surely Richard has gone full dog, Camille decides. There is absolutely no reason for him to go downstairs and chase what she assumes must be a lost parrot that has nested in the bar. Then again, she supposes if she entertains his whim he will probably be perfectly content to fall back asleep. 

  
It is under this logic that she chooses to open the apartment door and allow him to race downstairs and sniff around while she stands on the top step, if only to be able to let him back inside after he has sated his folly.

  
Moments after he has taken off into the bar, however, she hears a distinctly not parrot like sound. "Holy shit, nobody said the bartender had Cujo!"

  
Before Camille has time to process what exactly this means, she hears Richard, who is apparently not completely hopeless with pop culture, growl "Cujo was a Saint Bernard."

  
The next few seconds go into a blur. Richard lets out another growl, which is quickly followed by a gunshot, then a strange yelp, two male screams and another utterance from a second, not-Richard voice. "You just killed a werewolf. Man let's get out of here."

  
All past training Camille has had falls to the wayside. All she can think about is that Richard may be dying right now. By the time she reaches him, the two intruders are nowhere to be found, and Richard is on the ground bleeding and convulsing in a body that is somewhere between man and beast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I intend to reveal more about the intruders in the next chapter, which is supposed to be the final one. Also, in case the pop culture reference goes unrecognized, Cujo was the title character in a Stephen King novel that was made into a film in the 80s. He was a Saint Bernard who lived at a junkyard and was considered to be a very passive, friendly dog until he got bit on the nose by a rabid bat and went on a killing spree in his rabies induced frenzy. In this case the intruder, who is not very bright, was probably just freaking out because big angry dog.


	5. One Year Later

**One Year Later**  
Richard doesn't even bother to flinch as a slender hand reaches out to grab his while he sits on the side of the bed. 

  
When he half turns, Camille looks up at him with a smile that somehow appears both lazy and incredibly devious. "Hi."

  
Almost a year ago, she had moved in to the beach shack to help care for him. It was only meant to be temporary; his left leg had been partially shattered by the bullet wound he had received while in the body of a dog, and during the resulting fall he had managed to concuss himself badly enough that he was only allowed to be sent home with someone to watch over him. Somehow, using what Richard assumes must be her French manipulation, she'd managed to counter every single reason he might have posed for her leaving again until they'd finally just agreed to become a couple and she'd moved from sleeping on a pull out sofa to actually sharing his bed.

  
In a way, she manipulated him into dating her, but he doesn't feel begrudged by this. In fact, he feels incredibly thankful, not just to her, but to everyone who helped him during what were definitely the most traumatizing days of his life.

  
He's so caught up in his thoughts that he doesn't realize Camille has moved until he feels the sudden pressure of her laying her head on his lap. Before he can ask what she is doing she states, "I want to see the sunrise."

  
Even as she makes herself comfortable, a terrible, horrible thought enters his mind and he feels he can't banish it without speaking it out loud. "Camille, do you ever wish that I was still a dog?"

  
Camille twists to look up at his face, almost looking confused. "Why would you even ask that?"

  
Richard can't help but shrug in response. "Dogs are loyal and brave, and people are generally happy to see them."

  
"Well, I didn't like seeing you become human again."

  
"Oh." Richard feels his stomach drop. Of course she wanted him to stay fuzzy and cute and not return to being a pale, practically hairless freak who sticks out like a sore thumb on a tropical island. Even though she does seem to love him to at least some extent, she clearly preferred his other form.

  
"You were in so much pain, and if you had died I know I would still blame myself because it would have happened while you were saving Maman and I. I wanted you to feel so safe sleeping next to me that you'd just wake up again as a human and I still hate that those horrible men who were trying to burn down the bar took that away from you." Camille sits up and gives him a quick, comforting peck on the lips. "I love you Richard."

  
"As a human?"

  
"Yes, as a human. Now come back to bed with me."

  
Now it's Richard's turn to be confused. "I thought you wanted to watch the sunrise?"

  
"And now I have found something much better to look at; a pair of very handsome green eyes that look so much better when their owner is smiling, and not a dog."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit tricky because I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but wasn't entirely sure how to say it. I'm still a little unhappy with how it turned out, but I feel it ties up the story nicely.
> 
> Also, because I didn't put in as much detail about our "lovely friends" who shot Richard as I had planned, the basic storyline I had assumed for them is that earlier in the night Catherine kicked them out of La Kaz after they came in high on some drug and were super disruptive. They came back later intending to burn the place down as a sort of revenge, but were still super high at the time and ended up running away when things got crazy only to confess the next morning at the police station that they thought they had "murdered a werewolf"...a claim which Dwayne and Fidel quickly figured out how to spin into a plausible story for the commissioner that explained Richard's injuries without revealing the dog ordeal.


End file.
